wouldn't be nothin without
by besomsandbooks
Summary: Just a muggleborn trying to make her way through but the Marauders keep getting in her way. I think this is the closest thing I'll get to putting myself in a story. But it's not me. It's someone in situations that I think should exist in the Wizarding World. Sort of a mix of my muggleborn headcannons that all come together in one cohesive story. I hope it's cohesive. love me


Laurel did not enjoy Hogsmeade weekends. Don't get her wrong, she didn't mind the quaint village slightly hidden by the towering castle she called her school and home away from home, actually, she quite liked all the peculiar shops and got on very well with their keepers. The Flume's in particular would, without fail, enchant different sweets from their shop, Honeydukes, to fly across the street where Laurel sat in the newly opened Hogsmeade branch of Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour. The black raspberry chocolate canaries were her favorites and she was almost certain they were exclusive to her. However, as much as she loved Hogsmeade as a whole, she did not enjoy the days where the doors of Hogwarts would open and students ages thirteen to seventeen would rush down the hill and right through her door, further damaging the bell hanging at the top that was even past magical repair.

Now, it's not the fact that Hogsmeade weekends are significantly busier than any other time Laurel works, she'd much rather be handling ice cream than cleaning or staring at the clock willing the end of her shift to come faster. It's that, well, teenagers are suspicious and quick to judge at the best of times and those traits are multiplied when coming from old "distinguished" pureblood families, and okay, she's pretty sure she's the only Hogwarts student in history to have a job on the weekend while enrolled but she is definitely not the only teenager in history to do so. She knows for a fact that in the muggle world it is more common than not. Which is what she wants to scream at the small group of fourth years whispering and giggling over their ice cream shooting her short glances when they thought she wasn't looking.

She took a deep breath, in through her nose, out through her mouth. She shouldn't be this resentful, really, it's only the second Hogsmeade weekend. She should be feeling bad for them, not herself. She started working just over a month ago, a week after classes started, and it's been wonderful roaming the village and shops during her breaks and before and after her shifts without all the other students clogging up the place, much better than being cooped up in the castle or worrying about being a victim of a prank while roaming the grounds. It'll all blow over soon and everyone will get used to her presence behind the counter of the ice cream shop, but if she hears one more person say-

"Excuse me ma'am? I'd- oh you're a _student._ "

Laurel sighed and turned to a short boy with brown, slightly blonde hair, wide eyes, and grubby fingers resting on her previously perfectly polished counter top.

"That I am," she replied, a bit snappish. Laurel shook herself, even though they were her peers, good customer service was something she valued, and it was the best way to get tips. "What can I get for you?"

"I-wait, you _work_ here?" The boy spluttered.

 _Gee, nothing get's past you does it? What gave it away first, the uniform or the unwavering tolerance of incompetent customers?_

"That I do. Would you like to try our new Hot Pumpkin Juice hard scoop? It'll keep you warm in that October breeze."

"If you go to Hogwarts why do you work here-?"

"Honestly Peter," A voice snapped from behind him. With a glance Laurel saw that it was Lily Evans, a kind, fiery-haired Gryffindor in the year above her who she was friendly with. "Can't you see you're holding up the queue?"

Laurel shot Lily a quick smile before preparing the mumbled order of the blushing boy she now assumed was Peter Pettigrew, the least well known of an infamous group of boys who refer to themselves as the Marauders, all sharing Lily's house and year.

"Sorry about him," Lily apologized while Laurel got started on her and her friends' ice creams.

"Lily, despite what you may think, you're not responsible for those boys, or anyone else in your house for that matter. You don't have to apologize for them." Laurel said with a breathy laugh, handing off a couple cones. "Besides, that's not nearly the worst I've gotten."

"Have people been bothering you? You just give me names Laurel, and I'll-"

"Woah! Easy killer, I'm a big girl and can take care of my own problems. I think you've got enough on your plate." Laurel jerked her head to the window where there was a clear view through the glass of Peter Pettigrew joining three other boys across the way, two of whom were making quite the ruckus. Lily groaned.

"Don't even get me started. Potter is just-" She waved her hands around wildly before slapping them down against her thighs making a noise of distress. Laurel raised her eyebrows following the motions. "Anyway, when am I going to see you in Transfiguration? You don't expect me to believe that after taking your OWLs a year early you've dropped the class?"

"No, nothing that drastic. McGonagall's been working through my schedule, it's been a real pain since the plan for Charms fell through at the last second, so I've been having to go there with the rest of my year instead. McGonagall's been keeping me up to date with what you're learning though, and I've been getting the assignments so I can transition smoothly. I've got a meeting with her tomorrow morning." Laurel finished, handing Lily her ice cream expertly sculpted into a flower.

"If only you were a prodigy in Charms as well," Lily sighed in faux disappointment then broke character with a laugh. "Guess you can't have it all! I hope you get to join us in class tomorrow!" Lily raised her cone in salute slightly, flashing a brilliant smile before bring the ice cream to her lips. Okay, so maybe Laurel had a crush on Lily a year or two ago, but she quickly deemed their relationship platonic. Of course, that didn't mean she couldn't appreciate how pretty Lily was.

"Have fun today Lily, and try not to hex anyone," Laurel inclined her head to the three boys who were now wrestling in the street out the window and the fourth desperately trying to save his ice cream from the fray. Lily laughed.

"Thanks, and you too," she raised her eyebrows pointedly before heading to the group of girls standing by the door.

"Hey Laurel!" A blonde who was all smiles by the name of Alice Prewett called from the group. "Do try to get next Hogsmeade weekend off so you can join us!" without waiting for a response, she blew Laurel a kiss and skipped out the door. Laurel just laughed and waved, they were a colorful bunch, those Gryffindors.

No one would ever say that Remus Lupin wasn't a kind person. Ever. He was the nice boy. The studious one who wasn't as averse to one on one human interaction as the skittish Pettigrew, but also kept to himself more than the hubristic Black and the ostentatious Potter. He was shy, but kind, and he became a good role model and mentor for the younger years of his house when he stepped into the role of Prefect last year. However, it is difficult to shake the training it takes to hide and isolate and protect a secret as large as the one Remus Lupin carries, so though he is a kind person, he doesn't go out of his way to know people he does not frequently interact with. This is why the first time he directly speaks with Laurel, he doesn't even get her name.

It was in his fifth year. Remus was in the library scanning the shelves for a book recommended to help review for Transfiguration OWLs, they were still months away but he's just that kind of student. His fingertips skimmed the spines of the old texts as he slowly made his way down the aisle forefinger catching at the top of his desired volume and with a tug of his finger, it was in his hands. Only, the book he held was not on Transfiguration, if he didn't know better, Remus would have thought the book didn't have anything to do with magic at all. The words **Conceptual Physics** glared at him from the cover in bold lettering, a colorful picture in the background. It was frayed and worn down, but was a clear modern contrast to the ancient tomes that he knew to fill the library. He squinted at the book, as though expecting it to rid itself of the strange glamour it presented and turn into the one he needed, but was startled out of his befuddlement by a throat clearing at the end of the aisle he occupied. Remus looked up to see a girl about a foot shorter than he (he was quite tall) wearing robes with the tell tale Hufflepuff yellow tentatively approaching him. He did not recognize the hesitant smile or the honey blonde hair falling slightly in front of her face so she couldn't be his age. After almost five years of shared classes, Remus was fairly certain he was familiar with everyone in his year, regardless of house.

"Sorry, were you looking for this?" The girl asked, voice clear despite the initial observed trepidation. Remus focused on her hands, extended slightly and holding a book, _his_ book, in a loose grip. She let out a small laugh that seemed both involuntary and forced at the same time. "I replaced mine by mistake." Shuffling the book he already had into one hand, he gripped the offered text with the other, tucking it more securely between his arm and side.

"Yeah, thanks," he finally replied, returning his gaze to the small girl in front of him a bit confounded by her very existence.

"Um, could I- uh-" she floundered a bit, shifting from foot to foot under his gaze and motioning helplessly to the book he still held in one hand.

"Hmm? Oh!" Shaken out of his trance, Remus found himself blushing, embarrassed. He was a prefect now, he was supposed to be better than this, he was supposed to be setting an example. "Uh, here." He placed the book delicately in her waiting hands.

"Thank you," she mumbled and he watched as she brought it tight to her chest, less like she was protecting it, and more like it was protecting her. Merlin, he really was acting like a prat, wasn't he?

"Uh, is it for, uh, Muggle Studies?" He blurted quickly, trying to salvage the interaction and walk away from it without feeling too guilty. Their eyes meet, and he can tell that she'd confused but after a moment or two her demeanor changes. She relaxes, her shoulders sink from their hunched position and her grip on the book loosens. A small, mischievous smile quirks her lips.

"Sure," she replies, her smile growing, but before Remus can witness the full extent, she has turned and is at the end of the aisle, disappearing around a bookshelf. He takes a moment to consider going after her, another to consider asking around about her, but settles on not giving the whole thing another thought. He'd never seen her before and probably never will again, what's the point of dwelling on it? He never stops to question why a girl who was clearly younger than him by at least a year had an OWL level Transfiguration book in the first place.

Remus never stops to question it, until now, when he's sitting in Transfiguration with his three best friends all staring at a short honey haired girl in Hufflepuff robes who had not been in their class last week, or the beginning of term, or in any of their previous classes the years they had been at Hogwarts. Yet, there she was, chatting animatedly with Lily Evans and Alice Prewett as the class awaited the arrival of their Professor. Remus thought back to the library and the only other time he had seen that smile.

"Who's the new girl chatting with Evans?" James asked, curious, but mostly affronted that he doesn't know someone in Lily's life.

"She's hot, for a 'Puff," Sirius remarked, eyeing her up and down and Remus is used to his friend saying things like that but this makes him pause. His impression of the girl was that she was sweet and cute and a sort of innocent that Sirius had once liked to corrupt. Now, Remus loves his friend, but he doesn't love what he's done to girls in the past. He just hopes that Sirius has outgrown that trait of his "bad boy" persona.

"Don't be an ass, Padfoot. She's cute," James says, kicking Sirius's chair to jostle it and then returning a contemplative gaze on the girl in question. The other three Marauders exchanged high-browed, wide-eyed looks.

"Cute?" Sirius asked incredulously, but not a second later a wolfish grin spread across his face. "Finally moved on from Evans have you Prongsie? Atta boy!"

"Shut up," James shot back, slightly offended but mostly in good humor, shoving Sirius before pulling him into a headlock somehow keeping both their balance atop their chairs. "Just because Lily and I are meant to be together and nothing could ever match her level of radiance, doesn't mean that I can't appreciate other beauty when it presents itself. By the way, have you noticed that when Lily pulls her hair back like that she looks especially-"

"Now it's your turn to shut up," Sirius grumbled, breaking free from James and shoving him into the back of his seat. James just laughed, shaking out his hair and then patting it down out of his eyes.

"Anyway," James prompted. "Who is she?"

"That's the girl who works at the ice cream place in Hogsmeade!" Peter reported excitedly, jumping to add his input at the beat of silence that followed James' question.

"Really? Hmm, well, what's her name? What's her story?" At Peter's lost look, James raised an eyebrow to Remus but all he received was a shrug and a shake of the head, and so the three sixth year boys turned with bated breath to their fourth. Sirius was staring determinedly at the girl with an unreadable look on his face, one could mistake his intense gaze for his usual pervertedness, however, the spark of desire was missing from his eyes, replaced by a hint of apprehension and frustration. The group sat in silence for a while before Sirius realized his friends were waiting on him.

"Hmm? Oh, I don't know who she is." This floors them.

You see, as much as Remus Lupin has almost the minimal amount of social connections, Sirius Black is the polar opposite. Sirius Black knows everyone and their mother, which can partially be attributed to his family, buts mostly the result of his infallible charisma. It is utter madness that this girl has evaded being caught in Sirius's social web, especially as she appears to be quite friendly with Lily Evans and the other sixth year Gryffindor girls. Though, to be fair, after the initial mutual house and year "getting to know you" their first year, the girls themselves have tried and been quite successful at avoiding Sirius's "web of drama," but that a girl, and a pretty one at that, had eluded his notice is unheard of.

It seems as though this girl has been skirting around the Marauders lives, just brushing the surface without drawing any real attention to herself. They don't even know her name for Merlin's sake and, well, now they just can't have _that_. They're the Marauders after all, and they have a reputation to uphold.


End file.
